Step into the light: An insider's guide to summer in St Moritz

‘I want to make St Moritz a part of the exhibition… It goes beyond the gallery space,’ says Angeliki Kim Perfetti, of her inaugural exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in the Swiss mountain town.

‘Light’, open until August 30, explores how artists engage with the phenomenon of light itself across different mediums. Moreover, it gave Perfetti, an independent art curator and advisor, the opportunity to commemorate a place close to her heart and in a different… light.

‘Something that is so special [about St Moritz],’ enthuses Angeliki, ‘is that it doesn't matter how many times you go, every time you travel through the mountain pass and arrive, you're always as amazed. You're always as stunned.’ Though it’s better known as a ski resort, the warmer months of spring and summer is when St Moritz — which boasts a minimum 300 days of sunshine every year and the official emblem of which is a smiling sun — can be best appreciated. ‘The Nature is so mesmerising,’ she adds.

You’d be hard pressed to find someone better suited to curating a show about light than Angeliki, who grew up in Swedish Lapland deep inside the Arctic Circle. In summer, the sun’s butter-yellow glow is omnipresent and, in winter, entirely nonexistent. ‘This extremeness of light was at the forefront of my upbringing,’ she says. The curator now spends much of the year in St Moritz — including long, lazy summer days during which the mercurial weather can change in an instant. Clusters of angry, rain-leaden clouds crack open to reveal a mellow sun that shines long into the evening. ‘I came a long way from home to feel at home,’ she says of her journey from the Swedish haven of her childhood to the Swiss one she now calls home.

The process of assembling ‘Light’ meant that Angeliki got to work with Jenny Holzer, one of the artists she’d long admired and studied at university: ‘She got me into the Arts in the very beginning and gave me an understanding that art can have a powerful political and social impact.’ At first glance, Jenny’s loud music, a mixed-medium work on linen, comprising more than four types of gold, was seemingly chosen because its metallic surface radiates shimmery warmth; look again and you’ll notice heavily redacted government documents from the George W. Bush era (the artist hails from America) layered underneath (above). This work, says Angeliki’s supporting material, ‘sheds light’ on what is otherwise hidden.

To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, I asked Angeliki to shine a light on her favourite summer spots in her beloved St Moritz. Here are those recommendations.

Where to stay

Angeliki’s favourite hotel is Suvretta House, an icon of the Upper Engadine, but it is currently closed so that the spa can undergo a dramatic facelift. It will reopen for the winter season on December 5.

Across the street from Hauser & Wirth is Badrutt’s Palace (above), a historic hotel in the town’s centre where Billy Fiske, a Cresta Run competitor and American fighter pilot who was ultimately killed in the Battle of Britain, used to perform daring jumps from the hotel’s chandelier.

St Moritz’s headline-making newcomer is the Grace La Margna, the first hotel to open in the town for a half century. ‘They are contemporary and it feels very fresh,’ says Angeliki of the property, which is all clean lines and shades of beige — a stark contrast to St Moritz’s existing famous and sprawling Gothic hotels. Downstairs there’s a Beefbar outpost (joining siblings in Monte-Carlo and St Tropez), which offers up something entirely different to the venison and fondue-heavy menus of some of the more traditional restaurants. In February, they partnered with artist Pietro Terzini on a series of graffiti-inspired projections.

Where to eat

‘It doesn’t matter what time of year I visit — summer, winter, autumn, spring — I will always go to Bellavista,’ says Angeliki. ‘There’s a great atmosphere because it’s family-run and the food is excellent.’ The restaurant, inside a hotel of the same name, is in neighbouring Surlej and has a great terrace that’s perfectly appointed for long lunches.

At the Palace, the team behind the Grand Hall restaurant (above) — set up to resemble a grand living room and the place ‘to be seen’ in St Moritz — recently added a traditional niçoise salad to the light lunch menu, made with tuna poached in olive oil. Sit outside to make the most of the views over the town’s lake.

Her ‘something different’ comes in the form of Hotel Restaurant Roseg Gletscher, a charming alpine secret, a short horse-and-carriage ride away from Pontrasina (home to the longest village promenade in the Engdine). The pudding buffet is the stuff of local legend.

What to do

Go to Silvaplana, close to Surlej, for kitesurfing and bike riding around the blue lake. Alternatively, make for Lake Staz on a rented bicycle — ideally carrying a picnic basket brimming with treats — where it’s possible to swim in the glassy water from one of the many boardwalks and sunbathe on a floating platform. Barbeques are also permitted and there are fire pits to warm yourself when temperatures drop.

If you’re happy to travel further afield, venture on to the Romanesque-style Zuoz, widely considered to be one of the best preserved and most beautiful towns in the region. The chief hotel, Castell Zuoz, doubles as an exhibition space and there’s a James Turrell purpose-built open-topped cylinder from which the ever-changing sky can be observed.

Angeliki Kim Perfetti is the founder of Dynamisk Independent Curating and Art Advisory; ‘Light’ is open at Hauser & Wirth, St Moritz, until August 30